Manual Board Population/SMT Factory Tour

Shenzhen Adventure Day 25

01 Jul 2015

When you make a lot of a board, you get a fully automated SMT line. But what about when you only make 5?
Programming a SMT line takes time and is expensive. So you can do the dumb thing – do them by hand!

Yes, even though the components are tiny the employees are highly skilled with surgically precise hands.

When you’re getting hand done SMT, it’s obviously at a smaller scale, so things
are a bit more laid back you could say.

E.g., there was a random cat hanging out.

First, schematics and PCBs come in and are marked up to help the workers place parts.